Bosnian, Croat Forces Take Serb Area

September 14, 1995|By Kit R. Roane, Special to the Tribune.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bosnian government troops and their Bosnian Croat allies advanced rapidly Wednesday on Serb-held towns in central and western Bosnia, recapturing hundreds of square miles of territory and sending tens of thousands of Serb refugees fleeing.

The military campaign came as Bosnian Serb leaders stepped up their bitter condemnation of NATO's continuing airstrikes, complaining that the Muslim-led Bosnian government is taking advantage of the bombing campaign to gain a military advantage in the nearly 4-year-old war.

The Bosnian government's gains on the ground come after two weeks of NATO bombing raids, which have softened up the Bosnian Serb army but done little to attain their primary objective, the removal of Bosnian Serb heavy weapons around Sarajevo.

The refusal of the Bosnian Serb commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, to remove these weapons has caused much debate on why the Bosnian Serbs have been averse to accepting the NATO ultimatum but appear willing to withdraw from less strategic territory now under attack by Bosnian government troops.

"It could be pride on (Mladic's) part," a UN military official said. "Maybe we have not hit him sufficiently hard to move him over the pain threshold. He also may believe that NATO does not have the resolve to step up the attacks."

Janes Defense Information Group estimates that of the sites targeted, 10 percent of the Serbs' heavy weapons, 60 percent of their ammunition depots, bridges and infrastructure, and 80 percent of their air defense system have been destroyed.

Some UN officials and military analysts predict the airstrikes won't achieve their objective of forcing the removal of heavy weapons from around Sarajevo. They predict NATO will have to give up the campaign.

Under this scenario, the UN would let Mladic leave his guns in the hills ringing the city and use UN Rapid Reaction Force artillery batteries in the area to dissuade them from firing.

Mladic so far has refused to remove the weapons, saying he fears that Bosnian government forces inside the city would then re-take Serb-held suburbs nearby. It is a rationale lent credence by the Bosnian army and Bosnian Croat advances in other areas of the country.

The United Nations in Sarajevo said the strategic town of Donji Vakuf in central Bosnia appeared to have fallen to the Croat-Muslim allies Wednesday, and received reports of other Croatian gains to the northwest.

Croatian radio reported Wednesday that Bosnian Croat forces had seized Jajce, a town in central Bosnia they lost in a humiliating defeat in 1992. It is the site of an important power plant. The move could clear the way for a further push to Banja Luka, the Bosnian Serbs' heavily fortified military capital.

Other movement by Bosnian Croats was reported near Titov Drvar in southwestern Bosnia.

Earlier in the week, Bosnian government forces had taken a strategic all-weather road in northern Bosnia, providing better access to the industrial town of Tuzla.

Unlike Mladic's defiance around Sarajevo, Bosnian Serbs have so far put up little resistance in any of these areas, preferring to make strategic withdrawals to more defensible positions, the UN said.

Some Western diplomats and UN officials have noted that these regions, while symbolically important to the Serbs, have less strategic importance than Sarajevo, and would go to a Muslim-Croat Federation under a U.S.-sponsored peace plan anyway.